Football

C

Craig Hauber

Sophomore
Jan 20, 2011
242
1
18
53
Between Williston ND and Plentywood MT
www.mondaksound.com
What's better for a small-town highschool football field system: End zone or distributed?
There's also no enclosed press booth or under bleacher location for a rack and the place sees really nasty winters so was wondering if high-wattage 70V is acceptable for very long speaker lines from a nearby concession and restroom building.
I Was thinking of Community R series for the whole rig -I've had success with them in damp coastal southern locations but how do they fare in the full onslaught of a 49th-Parallel prairie winter?
 
Re: Football

Craig Hauber said:
What's better for a small-town highschool football field system: End zone or distributed?
There's also no enclosed press booth or under bleacher location for a rack and the place sees really nasty winters so was wondering if high-wattage 70V is acceptable for very long speaker lines from a nearby concession and restroom building.
I Was thinking of Community R series for the whole rig -I've had success with them in damp coastal southern locations but how do they fare in the full onslaught of a 49th-Parallel prairie winter?
Click to expand...

While I'm not at the 49th parallel the high school in my town installed a R series system a few years ago. It's mounted to the roof of the press booth at the 50 yard line. I use is once a year and it seems to do the job well.

Philip
 
Re: Football

Depends upon the neighbors somewhat. End zone tends to spill audio out of the stadium much more than distributed. Another consideration is what non-football uses the stadium has. Some small towns use the stadium for graduation and an end zone system is lousy for that.

On one hand, overall labor and cabling costs can be much lower with the end zone system. However, it takes really big horns to do the job right. EV still makes what for a long time were some of the best for that: Electro-Voice MH Stadium Horns

(This is where I always have to tell the story of the out-of-state EV rep calling our company back in the '80s asking if a local school district had gone insane when they ordered 4 of the largest MH horns for the high school stadium. Nope, these were the correct choice for our little 20,000 seat high school stadium.)

Only problem with 70V systems is the low frequency loss due to the necessary transformers. Everything else about the method (transformer isolation, lower cabling costs, speaker-by-speaker level adjustability) can make it a better choice for installations such as these.
 
Re: Football

Craig Hauber said:
What's better for a small-town highschool football field system: End zone or distributed?
There's also no enclosed press booth or under bleacher location for a rack and the place sees really nasty winters so was wondering if high-wattage 70V is acceptable for very long speaker lines from a nearby concession and restroom building.
I Was thinking of Community R series for the whole rig -I've had success with them in damp coastal southern locations but how do they fare in the full onslaught of a 49th-Parallel prairie winter?
Click to expand...

around here high school football is lucky if they can afford a bullhorn :)

but on the subject of R series out in the cold I have a few installations that have been braving Canadian winters for years now. some are even disconnected all summer and only used in the winter.

Jason
 
Re: Football

Craig Hauber said:
What's better for a small-town highschool football field system: End zone or distributed?
There's also no enclosed press booth or under bleacher location for a rack and the place sees really nasty winters so was wondering if high-wattage 70V is acceptable for very long speaker lines from a nearby concession and restroom building.
I Was thinking of Community R series for the whole rig -I've had success with them in damp coastal southern locations but how do they fare in the full onslaught of a 49th-Parallel prairie winter?
Click to expand...

Craig,

R is indeed what you want to use. It lasts, and can be made to sound pretty good. If you do some coverage map work, you'll find that distributed will be more even unless you've got a lot of horsepower.
 
Re: Football

So it looks like end-zone is the lazy-way to do it :) Explains why I've seen it so much then.
One issue I had is announcer delay from control booth when they hear their voice coming back to them 60 yards later -amateur announcers in non-enclosed booths always seem to have trouble with that.
Also with the distributed you're pointing more sources downward and less into the town. Just tried a portable system set-up to see how it would work and we'll probably be going distributed 70V with the R-series. Voice-range primarily, but music piped through it won't sound as nasty as with conventional reflex horns.
(The town hasn't had football in years, but due to an oil boomtown in the area there's now enough kids and plenty of happy donor money to equip their "field of dreams")
 
Re: Football

John Moore said:
RCF has some good outdoor drivers \ speakers as well that can be used in the same type venue

Maybe I'm missing something but I rooted around on their site and did't see anything even close to what I would want to see hanging un-sheltered on light poles outside year-round?
Is there a specific model series you were thinking of?

-thanks
Click to expand...
 
Re: Football

I assume you are planning on ignoring things like infrastructure. Wire paths-mounting structures and so forth are often the biggest thing that dictates what type of system (where it goes). Adding that type of "stuff" can often cost more than the sound system itself.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of systems. And just because one particular type of system works in one stadium-does not mean it will work as well in another.

Things like press box height-type of construction etc can make a big difference in how well it works.

Often with installs it is not a matter of what you should do-but what you CAN do-based on the limitations of a particular project.

For what it is worth-I have installed both types of systems-and with the proper design and loudspeakers both can work.
 
Re: Football

Ivan Beaver said:
There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of systems. And just because one particular type of system works in one stadium-does not mean it will work as well in another.

Things like press box height-type of construction etc can make a big difference in how well it works.

Often with installs it is not a matter of what you should do-but what you CAN do-based on the limitations of a particular project.
Click to expand...
+1. I've had several high school football field projects that were concerned about limiting sound to neighboring residential areas, although hearing distorted AC/DC through PA horns on our back deck last night I can say with certainty that does not apply to all high schools. I've also been called in where schools had problems with the football field systems echoing off gyms and other nearby buildings. Or where we had to use existing speaker locations. Unless you are starting from scratch, and in some cases even then, then such factors may be relevant.
 
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